“In ten minutes things could look so differently, like the colour of a sunset and the world after meeting you.” (unknown author)

Do you ever feel like your brain needs a workout? You lead a fairly healthy lifestyle…at least these days? Yet you often feel like you’ve got the worst hangover or you’ve been run over by a bus?

My personal research into a disease that my Mother suffers from and my grandmother before her, Pernicious Anaemia began by purchasing the book “Could it be B12? An Epidemic of Misdiagnoses” by Sally M. Pacholok and Jeffrey J. Stuart

It’s firstly important to note that B12 deficiency does not necessarily lead to Pernicious Anaemia, although both are life changing and without treatment will shorten life and certainly along the way reduce life quality as I found first hand. I am scripting my experiences in several blogs which have a long way to go until finished. Surviving a misdiagnosis , A downward spiral of b12 deficiency, The initial b12 deficiency discovery , also you can follow The Hospital Diaries on my blog.

So during my suffering and lack of information from real life medics, I found a support group on Facebook where thousands of people write everyday about their symptoms, their lack of support, the illness, the mystery, the abuse, the treatment or lack of….

On opening the book “Could it be B12? An Epidemic of Misdiagnoses” by Sally M. Pacholok and Jeffrey J. Stuart the 1st page reads as follows.

” What Do These People Have in Common?”

A 40 year old reporter loses his ability to write, fails when he attempts to walk, and becomes so confused that his wife suspects early onset Alzheimers…

A beautiful, normal 8 month old baby gradually loses her speech, stops responding to her parents and eventually can’t even sit up by herself…

A 20 year old woman becomes severely depressed and attempts to kill herself..

A ballet dancer undergoes cosmetic surgery and ends up nearly unable to walk…

A 69 year old woman develops balance problems, fallsuch and fractures her hip…

A 38 year old woman condemned to life in a wheelchair after gastric bypass surgery…

An 86 year old man becomes delusional and kills his wife…

A 54 year old woman experiences paranoid delusions and violent outbursts, couple with symptoms her doctor diangoses as multiple sclerosis…

A 4 year old boy is diagnosed with autism…

A 73 year old whose doctors attribute his repeated falls to old age or possible ‘mini strokes’…

A young woman unable to conceive…

A Grandfather transforms in less than a year from a healthy jogger to a depressed, confused man diagnosed with senile dementia.

Here’s what these patients don’t have in common: a correct diagnosis. Instead they have a plethora of incorrect, often hopeless diagnoses: developmental disability, autism, multiple sclerosis, psychosis, senile dementia, transient ischemic attacks, depression or diabetic neuropathy. But in reality, they all suffer from the same medical condition…

VITAMIN B12 DEFICIENCY

Me again:

Sudden real life things you may recognise in yourself include

Loss of Social skills. Loss of Sensation. Loss of Inhibition. Loss of Position Sense.

Throughout my diaries I will be referring to my personal experiences with suggestions of Lupus, meningitis, mental deterioration, metabolism, ME, MS. Also lungs, lumbar, motor skills, neurological, optic nerves, OCD, skin, speech and tingling, parkinsons and much more which comes to me when I remember….cognitive thinking isn’t my strong point these days…

Incredible the journey, no scrap that word I haven’t gone anywhere…the self life saving research I’ve had to do just to be in a place I can write my diaries, help other people. I have helped too. One lady who followed by blogs closely and followed in my steps to research said that I had no idea how much I had helped her transform her life. That’s kinda special and keeps me going.

I am by no means stating that non of the other diseases in this blog exist I’m suggesting that not enough is done to rule out a much easier to treat cause for the symptoms, treatment that does not only abate the symptoms but can control and clear the symptoms leading to an even clearer mind and body function and a longer life of happiness and well being.

Definately I am saying that if left un diagnosed therefore untreated, a vitamin B12 deficiency WILL lead to nerve damage, can be permanent and crippling and many won’t get the treatment until it’s too late!

I was 39! My research tells me this had been building my whole life and more dangerously over the past 10 years.

It Can Strike At Any Age

Pernicious Anaemia can only be treated by injections as the body after some tests prove that it cannot be absorbed no matter how many b12 rich foods we digest, it’s kind of the point, we don’t digest it.

B12 deficiency can be treated by eating a better diet and can correct itself but it’s important the doctor does the tests.

Oral supplements are available at the health store. B12 IS A WATER soluble vitamin so when the body has enough it flushes the excess away. In a normal patient it can be stored , in a patient with Pernicious Anaemia it cannot.

The diaries I am writing are before I knew any of this and looking back, it all made perfect sense….. or at least it would have had I had the medical support from the correct people, which came much much later, almost too late for me.

The B group of vitamins are so important in our everyday lives.

Here’s a roundup

B1 (thiamine) – helps the body make healthy new cells. It’s often called an anti-stress vitamin because of its ability to protect the immune system.

B2 (riboflavin) – antioxidant, may prevent early aging and the development of heart disease. Good for red blood cell production.

B3 (niacin) – produces good cholesterol. Alcoholism can lead to a deficiency.